Greene Mtn. Trail & Camp Creek Falls – 3-30-2013
Ever since my last trip to Camp Creek Falls in Greene County, I had wanted to find the Camp Creek Trail to see if it still existed. Since it is hard to find at the bottom due to it beginning on private property, I thought maybe it would be a good idea if we could locate it from the top of Green Mountain. We had been wanting to explore that area anyway as it has been many years since we left any bootprints there. My friend Bol’Dar and I left Hairnt Quarters after 10am getting our usual late start and took the fairly long drive around to Viking Mountain Road which leads up to Viking Mountain / Jones Meadows / Camp Creek Bald where we planned to park at the gate to a forest road that is labeled as ‘Green Mountain Trail’. This is located about halfway up just before Low Gap in the sharp switchback of the road but we could not make it to this point due to the snow and ice covered road so we ended up parking and walking an extra mile to get there. That mile is mostly uphill but it was a good warmer upper for a chilly morning. From the gate it was mostly level for about two miles over to the Kennedy Cabin area. It is important to know that there is a a lot of trail and road intersections to be encountered here and many are not on any maps so, you will need a good sense of direction and some knowledge of the area to negotiate these successfully. Following the old forest road, the first major intersection you will come to is where the Bullen Hollow trail comes in from Low Gap. If you go off the main road and walk up to that intersection from the split, you will see where FR358 goes on the other side of the ridge and down towards Bullen Hollow and you will have views of Viking Mountain and Blackstack Cliffs from this point. There was a few inches of snow mostly on the shaded North slopes but it was not deep enough to make hiking difficult and actually gave some contrast to the mountain views to make things more visible.